Clifton Park and school district agree to preserve forest

Town and school officials announce the deal across the street from Staples – near a trailhead into the 34-acre forest.

Imagine sipping a café latte from Uncommon Grounds as you sit in a gazebo in a tranquil forest in Clifton Park, right across the street from Staples. Muted sunlight plays across ferns and moss. Leaves clap in a breeze, drowning out the rumble of car traffic.

Pretend no more. In a deal announced Tuesday with the Shenendehowa school board, the town of Clifton Park tentatively agreed to pay the school district $1.1 million for a 34-acre forest—preserving a green oasis surrounded by big box stores, office buildings, food outlets, Shatekon Elementary School, and Moe Road.

Now residents can get their shopping and nature fix in one trip.

A trail ends in the parking lot of Citizen’s Bank, part of the dense commercial development surrounding the 34-acre parcel

Town and school officials announced the deal across the street from Staples – near a trailhead into the park. The agreement, which is subject to approval by town and school boards as well as voters, marks a sharp turnaround from a year ago, when this forest of oak, pine and ferns seemed destined for the chopping block – just another green space consumed by commercial sprawl.

Back in December, the Shenendehowa school board voted to sell the wooded parcel to a commercial developer for $2 million, which planned to build a ShopRite there. But a public outcry ensued, with residents criticizing the board’s lack of public hearings, and voters overwhelmingly rejected the sale in a referendum last spring. The town and school district subsequently entered talks, and Tuesday’s agreement will protect those woods from development – creating a buffer against strip mall sprawl in the town’s eastern commercial district.

“It means you don’t have to drive all the way up to the Adirondacks for nature,” says Asha Merchant, a barista from Uncommon Grounds, who spoke to me during a work break. “This is literally within walking distance. It’s calm and calming, in a way that the hustle and the bustle of the city isn’t. All the perks of nature without all the cons of driving into remote areas to get that bit of nature and peace.”

The Clifton Park town board is expected to approve the contract at a meeting on Oct. 2, and the school board will vote on Oct. 10. School district residents get the final word, with a public referendum tentatively scheduled for Dec. 5.

Clifton Park plans community meetings to gather ideas on developing a park.

When approval is finalized, the town will start a comprehensive public planning process to flesh out plans to create a park. The forest trail system will likely be improved, with better signage and groomed paths. Gazebos and benches may be built. Science teachers from Shenendehowa can lead their students on nature expeditions, learning about native plants and animals.

Asked whether the town would clear-cut any part of the forest for, say, playing fields, town supervisor Phil Barrett said, “That’s not going to happen. It would make no sense at all.” The town’s Clifton Commons already has sufficient playing fields, as do adjoining elementary schools.

The agreement was a decisive victory for preservationists in their year-long battle to protect one of the last pristine parcels in the town’s commercial district. The Shenendehowa school district was forced to put the disputed land sale to a public vote after Friends of Clifton Park Open Space submitted a petition last year with more than 7,000 signatures demanding to give voters a say in the deal.

“We’re very happy that the school board and the town board worked together to keep the land in the public domain,” says Susan Burton, of Friends of Clifton Park Open Space.

David Kalish writes essays, novels, and plays. His essay, “A Path to Fatherhood, With Morning Sickness,” appeared in The New York Times, as a Modern Love column. He is the author of The Opposite of Everything, a comedic novel inspired by his simultaneous struggle to mend his heart, by finding new love, and his health, by seeking treatment for his cancer.

David Kalish

6 Responses

Ah, our mild-mannered roving super reporter is on the job again, protecting truth, justice, and open space. Thanks for this informative update, Dave. Now just have to hope the deal gets inked by both parties, and thumbed-up by the voters.

Was there really a “bitter fight”, or was there simply a legitimate difference of opinion that was rationally and seemingly quite peacefully resolved between adults who had the opportunity to present their respective positions to decision makers, who chose to listen to both sides, consider the alternative pluses and minuses and reached a decision.